Hiding the Truth

Each morning, after taking my thyroid pill, feeding the cats, and making coffee, I sit down and watch FOX News for 2 hours.  My preferred segment is Bill Hemmer from 9-11:00 am.  

I started watching FOX News after going to the gym and walking on the treadmill where there are several television monitors were hung on the wall.  FOX News was always on.

I was watching CNN or CBS for my news because I liked the anchors....  but, when I returned home, I discovered that CNN and CBS were not broadcasting the same stories as FOX News.  In fact, I soon learned that FOX News was more inclusive with the news than were the other stations.

Instead of worrying and wondering why this was taking place, I simply switched to FOX News...

When you think about it, anyone who is not getting the full news cannot make an intelligent decision as to what to support or what not to support.  When this happens, it also undermines our Democracy which supposedly prides itself on FREEDOM OF SPEECH and not CENSORSHIP OF SPEECH.

Countries like Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and countries like these countries DO NOT WANT their residents to know the truth because it will UNDERMINE their POWER.

I believe that some AMERICANS are wondering if FREE SPEECH is really the right way to go...  I am beginning to believe that these Americans want to be like communist countries where is truth is hidden or censored.

THINK ABOUT IT...

Wondering and Pondering

 One of the things that I do more often than not, is think about what may or may not happen based upon what I have heard, bearing in mind that much of what I have heard might just be slanted in a different direction from the actual truth or from reality...

Hard to believe?

Well, not only do some of our broadcast stations that report the news, NOT PRESENT all the news, but foreign countries like Russia and China have bloggers and hackers that post FALSE INFORMATION on the internet.

ABC, CNN, NBC, and CBS have decided NOT TO REPORT some stories that make the Democrats look bad or that exposes the Biden's corruption.  These stations have also not spent much time reporting on the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT situation.

SO, they are simply withholding the TRUTH in the hopes that it favors the Democratic Party.

This leads me to wonder, ponder, and speculate on just how much information is being withheld from the general public in the hopes of slanting the TRUTH...

Do Americans want to know the truth or do they prefer to just live their lives in harmonious ignorance?

There is actually nothing wrong with ignorance because one exists as if there are no problems at all...  and, if there are no problems, then life is peaceful and calm...

• We go to work
• We eat our meals
• We raise children
• We drink our alcohol
• We enjoy our recreation
• We socialize with neighbors
• We have no fears and no concerns

The Blues Bros

 

Internet On Moon

NASA is indeed bringing a celestial internet of sorts to the moon, but it is not the same internet we know on Earth. The technology employs a “protocol suite” of new networking technologies for transmitting information between astronauts in space and those on Earth.

Additionally, Nokia announced plans to bring LTE/4G to the moon to support communication between the lunar lander and rover.  In March 2023, NASA took to Instagram to share the space agency’s plans to install an internet-like network in space that will connect astronauts with researchers on Earth.

Got the Scent

 

What High School Learned Me

"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all.  And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none,
I can read the writing on the wall..."  Kodachrome by Paul Simon

When I was in high school, 1962-1966, I took French classes (2), Math classes (4), English classes (4), Science classes (4), Social Studies classes (4), Humanities classes (2), Physical Education classes (2)...  for a total of 22 credits.

PERSONALLY:

• I never used my French classes
• I never used 3 of my Math classes
• I never used my Science classes
• I never used my Social Studies classes
• I never used my Humanities classes
• I have used my Algebra class
• I have used my English classes

WHAT I WISH HIGH SCHOOL TAUGHT ME

1. Personal Finance and Investing (college)
2. Carpentry
3. Plumbing
4. Electricity
5. Auto Mechanics
6. Preparing a resume (college)
7. Cooking 
8. Interpersonal skills

 

High School has been designed to prepare ALL STUDENTS for COLLEGE and nothing else...

College has been designed to prepare ALL STUDENTS for GRADUATE SCHOOL and nothing else...

PROBLEM:  80-90% of the jobs out there require no college

Are our educators STUPID OR WHAT?

 

Backyard Train

 

Gemini Unveiled

Google this morning announced the rollout of Gemini, its largest and most capable large language model to date. Starting today, the company’s Bard chatbot will be powered by a version of Gemini, and will be available in English in more than 170 countries and territories. Developers and enterprise customers will get access to Gemini via API next week, with a more advanced version set to become available next year.

How good is Gemini? Google says the performance of its most capable model “exceeds current state-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widely-used academic benchmarks used in LLM research and development.” Gemini also scored 90.0% on a test known as “Massive Multitask Language Understanding,” or MMLU, which assesses capabilities across 57 subjects including math, physics, history and medicine. It is the first LLM to perform better than human experts on the test, Google said.    READ MORE...

Joan Baez

 

Illegal Drugs Are Winning

What do you think about illegal drugs?

Are you in favor of them?

Are you against them?

Do you think the government has the right to prohibit us from taking illegal drugs by making it a crime?

Think about this...

There are several STATES that have made smoking marijuana legal and yet according to the Federal Government, it is still a crime...  Yet, no arrests are made in those states by the Feds.

This type of contradiction by the Federal Government does not put the Federal Government in a positive light.  Either it is legal or it is not legal...

Personally, I think people should be allowed to take whatever drug trips their triggers...  unfortunately, these drug addicts or drug experimenters don't have the money to pay for their drugs so they commit crimes.

We are allowed to kill ourselves by drinking too much alcohol and by eating too much food, but we cannot kill ourselves with illegal drugs...  does not make much sense to me.

Another issue related to these illegal drugs is law enforcement.  I don't think law enforcement really wants to stop the flow of illegal drugs in the USA or its usage because if they did, they would have to layoff a TON OF WORKERS...  and, that would hurt the economy.

Consequently, the use of illegal drugs is tolerated...

Why do I think this way?

Because in 1966, this government was saying the same thing about how harmful illegal drugs were and that they were going to crack down and stop it.

That was over 50 years ago and if anything illegal drugs has gotten worse not better....  GO FIGURE?

Our IDIOT CONGRESS

There are some Democratic members of Congress who believe Israel's claim that Hamas killed women, children, the elderly, and raped women IS A LIE PERPETUATED BY ISRAEL AND THE REPUBLICANS TO JUSTIFY ATTACKING GAZA...

This belief is still prevalent even after HAMAS posted videos of them doing exactly that on the internet as a form of bragging...

This belief is still prevalent even after some of the hostages that were recently released confirmed that they also saw this happening...

These are esteem members of Congress that we elected to pass laws on our behalf who BELIEVE THIS WAY...

Do you think they might be a tad biased?

Do you think they might have a few pre-conceived ideas that are negative towards Israel? 

Do you think they still have the ability to govern us?

I don't really care about Israel nor do I really care about Hamas or any other terrorist organization...

For your information, AMERICAN SOLDIERS killed women, children, the elderly, and raped women in VIETNAM...  and, what did we do to them as a nation?  NOTHING!!!

When you fight WARS, then you must accept that children, women, and the elderly are going to get killed whether it is intentional or not.  And, you might as well expect THAT BOTH SIDES ARE GOING TO RAPE WOMEN.

To think otherwise is foolish, ignorant, and stupid.

Most of you have not been in a war zone and been right beside one of your friends who just had his head blown off because of an RPG...  That anger that builds up inside of soldiers (on both sides) is tremendous and when it is finally allowed to escape, those soldiers are no longer human...  they become animals.

War documentaries do not and will never show that side of war...

Money Talks

Not all millionaires are Democrats...

Not all billionaires are Democrats...

I am not sure how many billionaires or millionaires are DEMOCRATS and I guess it does not really matter...  However, we all know that George SOROS is a billionaire and a Democrat and likes to fund projects and organizations that are not pro-American...he also funds District Attorneys who think that more white people should be in jail because at the present time, there are more blacks incarcerated than whites.  The law be damned...

But, this is not about SOROS and his idiotic beliefs but it is about Americans who may or may not be Democrats but who believe in BEING FAIR...  hard to believe that some people still believe that.

Ever since MIT, UPenn, and Harvard testified in Congress about allowing anti-Jewish sentiments to flourish while claiming to believe in free speech, there has been a mass exodus of money withdrawn from those schools.  Presidents from these three schools straddled the fence when answering questions about Pro-Palestine protests and claims that they were not protecting their Jewish students.

It seems that these prestigious universities had made the assumption that pro Jewish beliefs were only in the ranks of the Republicans...  therefore, they could allow this to happen on their composes and nothing would happen to them.

Looks like these PHDs weren't as smart as their degrees made them appear.  One Board is now talking with one of the Presidents because there are calls for her to resign or get fired.

Tenured faculty cannot help these Presidents because MONEY TRUMPS EVERYTHING...

Suspicious Minds

 

In The News

Time magazine names Inter Miami star Lionel Messi as its 2023 Athlete of the Year (More)

Cleveland Guardians win top pick in 2024 MLB Draft; see full draft lottery results (More)

Denny Laine, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician who was a founding member of The Moody Blues and Wings, dies at 79 (More)

Multidisciplinary artist Jesse Darling wins 2023 Turner Prize, widely considered most prestigious award for British artists (More)

NCAA proposes new athletics subdivision that would allow certain schools autonomy to directly compensate student-athletes (More)

Numbers

 

Our Lives are Hardly Ever Planned Out

 Life happens when you're making other plans...  John Lennon

Carpenters measure twice or thrice and cut once...  they claim...  and, that makes sense.

Nobody goes on vacation without knowing where they are headed.  although, I suppose some of us just get in the car and drive.

Most successful companies develop rolling STRATEGIC PLANS (1-3 years or in some cases 3-5 years), evaluate their progress quarterly, making adjustments to the plan if and when they are necessary.

NOTE:  most Japanese companies develop strategic plans for 15-20 years...

Different management mindsets...

MOST OF US, but not ALL, live our lives without any planning taking place at all.

1. After high school, we go to college, go to a trade school, get married, or join the military.
2. We take the first job we can find and stay there until we retire, or we change jobs every 3-5 years using our experience to get a better job.
3. We retire without really knowing what we are going to do to keep busy and do whatever until we die.
4. If we do any retirement planning at all, it is during the last 10 years of our careers.

Does this sound familiar?

We do not know in the statement made by John Lennon if his statement making other plans was intended to mean:

• what to do today
• what to do this week
• what to do this year
• what to do this decade
• what to do this lifetime

I doubt very seriously that we think about our retirement when we are:

• 18 years of age
• 25 years of age
• 30 years of age
• 40 years of age
• 50 years of age
• maybe we do at 60 years of age

How many houses do you plan to buy?

How many wives do you plan to have?

How many children do you plan to have?

How many of those children will go to college?

How many cars do you plan to buy?

How many jobs do you plan to have?

How many companies do you plan to work for?

How many states do you plan to live in?

How much money do you plan to save?

How do you plan to become debt free?

How many times do you think you will be laid off?

How many car accidents will you have?

How many speeding tickets will you get?

How often do you think you will become seriously ill?

Somewhat Political

 

US Math Scores Down Again

Math scores for American 15-year-olds dropped to an all-time low between 2018 and 2022, according to the latest results of an international exam, the first large-scale study marking the pandemic's impact on education. The Program for International Student Assessment, representing 620,000 students throughout 81 education systems in 38 countries, compares math, reading, and science academic performance.


The US saw a 13-point drop in its average math score—from 478 (of 1,000) in 2018 to 465 in 2022—with one in three students scoring below the basic level of proficiency. US reading and science scores stayed mostly even. The US ranked sixth in reading, 10th in science, and 26th in math among participating countries, an improvement from 2018 (largely because of declines in other countries). 


Overall, the average math score across participating countries fell by 15 points—the equivalent of three-quarters of a year of learning. International reading scores fell by 11 points, while science scores remained relatively steady.   READ MORE...

White Rabbit

 

Copperhead Road